February 19, 2004
By Thomas Thale
CASTLE Mansion in downtown Johannesburg, hailed as the greatest South African building when construction was completed in the 1930s, looks set to recover some of its sparkle when it rises again as a residential complex.
Property investors AFHCO Group Holdings recently bought the building with the gray stone façade, which has stood empty for 10 years, for conversion into a residential complex. The property was formerly owned by ApexHi.
Wayne Plit, managing director AFHCO, says the company will spend R8-million on the alterations. "We will convert the building into 135 apartments comprising 99 two-bedroom flats, 14 bachelor flats, 14 one-bedroom and five three-bedroom penthouse units."
The 10-storey Castle Mansion, on the corner of Eloff and Jeppe streets, was the tallest and most modern building in the country when it was built in 1931. In his book, Johannesburg Style, Architecture and Society, 1880 to 1960, Clive Chipkin writes of the building: "Its pre-eminence in the Johannesburg skyline was not based on its mandatory 10-storey elevation but on the height of its central Art Deco flag mast. It was regarded as the most modern building of its day, noted for its modern plate glass shop-fronts, with Art Deco brass trim and modernistic illuminated shop signage, its first-floor plate glass showroom windows and its dramatically modern entrance with sans-serif name letters."
Today, retail outlets remain on the ground floor, but the rest of the building is deserted, except for the workmen on site busy removing rubble from the building, as construction work gets underway.
According to Plit, construction will entail clearing the floors, removing existing partitions, stripping flooring materials and then rebuilding the units. "Significant costs though, will go towards plumbing and electrification. We need separate plumbing stacks for each unit," explains Plit.
"Each unit will have its own bathroom, kitchenette, floor finishes and curtain rails. We had detailed plans drawn-up by architects and engineers. This is not makeshift stuff." The building will have access control in the form of fingerprint technology, 24-hour security, including CCTV surveillance, intercoms and TV points to each unit.
Apartments from the second to the fifth floor will be ready for occupation by mid-year, according to Plit. Work on the rest of the building will be completed by December.
AFCHO is targeting people who earn between R2 000 and R8 000 per month to move into the newly renovated apartments, says Plit, adding that demand for residential property in the inner city is on the rise.
Gerald Leissner, CEO of ApexHi, a listed company that owns numerous buildings in the inner city, said in a statement that the company intends selling some 40 000m² of office space in the Johannesburg city centre for conversion into residential apartments. According to Leissner, retail space in the city centre is fully let.
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